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Matthew Mitcham
To
celebrate the success of Matthew Mitcham the Australian Olympic
diver and the only out gay man at the Beijing Games we at Gay Belfast
have given Michael his own page within our site. His success: gold medal
for Australia in the men’s
10 metre platform diving in Beijing. The 20-year-old offered an incredible
112.10 final dive to beat the Chinese hope Zhou Luxin who had led the
competition until that point.
Mitcham originally competed as a trampoline gymnast. He was discovered by Wang Tong Xiang, a coach at the Australian Institute of Sport Diving Program, located at the Chandler Aquatic Centre in Brisbane's suburbs. Mitcham continued with both diving and trampolining for several years.
As a trampolinist, Mitcham represented Australia at the World Junior Championships in 1999 and 2001. At the 2001 Championships, Mitcham became the World Junior Champion on the double mini-tramp. He competed at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in 2003 in trampolining and finished sixth.
From 2002 through 2004, Mitcham was a national junior champion in diving, winning the events in which he competed. Mitcham competed at the 2002 World Junior Diving Championships, where he placed 11th in the 1m springboard, 5th in the 3m and 16th in the 10m platform. In 2004, he won the silver medals in the 1m, 3m synchronized, and 10m platform events at the 2004 World Junior Championships. He won the 1m, 3m, and 10m individual titles and the 3m synchro title at the 2004 Junior Nationals. At the 2004 Olympic Trials, he placed 3rd on the 3m and 10m individual events, 2nd on the 3m and 10m synchro events, and did not qualify for the Olympic team.
In 2005, Mitcham won his first senior national title. He competed at the Australian Olympic Youth Festival, where he won the silver medal on the 1m board with a score of 508.35; the gold medal on the 3m with a score of 565; the gold medal on 10m with a score of 555.8, and the gold medal with synchro partner Scott Robertson on the 3m synchro with a score of 316.23. He competed in the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, placing 12th on the 10m platform with a score of 560.73.
In 2006, Mitcham competed in the German Grand Prix event, placing 16th on the 3m and 6th on the 10m. He competed at the USA Grand Prix at Fort Lauderdale, placing 8th on the 3m springboard. He competed at the Canada Cup, where he placed 26th on the 3m and won the bronze medal on the 10m platform.
He represented Australia at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, where he competed in the 1m, 3m, and 10m events. He placed 4th in the 3m and the 3m synchro with Robertson, and 5th on the 1m and 10m events.
He took a break from diving in 2006. In 2007, he returned to the sport and started to train under current coach Chava Sobrino at the New South Wales Institute of Sport. In 2008 Mitcham won the 1m, 3m and 10m individual events at the Australian Nationals. Later that year he won the 2008 Diving Grand Prix event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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